NEXT STEPS: Giveعينة

WHAT IS IT? [Illustrations included in this devotional are not visible in this view. Illustrations are only supported in the Bible App for iOS, Android, and at Bible.com] When the topic of money and church comes up, many people get defensive. Maybe you had trouble even bringing yourself to start a Bible plan about money. After all, isn't God all about loving people and giving to others? Why should we have to give our money to God? If these are thoughts you've had before, don't be embarrassed. If you're going to go all-in for Jesus and your money is included in that, you should have questions. And you should have answers. That's why we're writing this plan! So to start, we'd like to take the opportunity to explain exactly what the Bible asks of Jesus-followers when it comes to finances. As we read the following verses, we'll see that "Give" isn't even necessarily the right term. Instead, we ought to use the word 'tithe.' The reason this word is more appropriate is because the word 'tithe' literally means 'a tenth.' And Jesus reinforces the reasoning behind this principle: No matter how much money you make, we are all called to sacrifice the same ratio, not the same amount. Someone with less money is not expected to give the same amount as someone with lots of money - Jesus is not after a dollar amount. As we'll talk about in tomorrow's devotional, Jesus is after our hearts. But for now, we wanted to start by explaining and reading just exactly what the Bible (and Jesus) said about tithing. So take a few minutes for yourself and see what it says!